The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-11-09
Farming as q Business.

Earning as business" says Pro-
fcssor Gulley, in Home md Farm, "is
not what it has been in the past. It re-
quires much more intelligence and skill
to farm successfully now than it did for
merly, and for variety of reasons.
"Uur wants have increased. The
luxuries of our fathers have become
everyday necessities for our comfort. We
feel that we must live better, dress
better, do more, work fewer hours, and
we require more in the way of mental
improvement, accomplishments and the
like. This is as it should be. The
farmer should have and should enjoy all
that is within the reach of the merchant
or professional man; he is even en-
titled to more than the town resident to
make up for the isolation of life on the
farm.
"The fact that country people do not
have the advantages of the town people,
that farming at the present time does not
hold out such strong inducements to
young men as other occupations, not
only prevents the town bred boy from be-
coming farmer, but it also draws a large
proportion of the brightest and smartest
boys from the country to the town, and
we have rs the result much larger num-
Der of the naturally gifted, shrcwd men
of the country engaged in manufactures,
TRANSPORTATION, trading, etc., than we find
farming, and it naturally follows that
the smarter men secure the larger share of
the proceeds of the industries.
"Another disadvantage that the farmer
labors under-the outcome of greater
ability possessed by men in other indus
tries--is the fact that improvement in
methods of manufu; ture, trade, transpor-
tation and distribution has been very
much more rapid than in farming. These
industries are growing away from the
production of farm crops.
"During the past fifty years the power
of one man to turn raw products into
manufactured goods and distribute them
to consumers, through the introduction
of improved machinery and application
of scientific discoveries, has increased
from five to one hundred or more
times. We have made no such advance
in growing crops.
ut is true the introduction of large
implements, anil the binder and header,
has increased the capacity of one man
tenfold in growing and harvesting wheat,
and haying machinery to nearly as great
an extent in making hay; but we have
only increased mans capacity two or
three fold in making corn, while in cot
ton growing it is probable that, on the
average, one man really produces less,
or at least no more than he did thirty
years ago.
"There is still another factor that IS
detrimental to the interests of the farm
or, and that is the exhaustion of the VIZ
gin fertility of the soil. Except in por-
tions of the older settled States, up to
the present time farming has been largely
of the pioneer order, which means clear
ing up the land and cropping ltln such a
way as to produce crop with the least
labor, rceardlcss of the exhaustion and
loss of the fertility of the soil, compel
ling us now 10 adopt some system OF fer
tilization that is necessarily expensive to
make the land produce as much as 1t did
formerly.
$50 much is said and written at the
present time about monopolcs and unjust
laws which are expressing the farmer that
many are led to believe that the con.
dition of the farmer may be improved
simply by legislation. While there may
be some injustice done to the farmer by
powerful corporations and lawmakers,
still we must study the underlying prin-
cip!es of agriculture aud its connection